The making of Israel's army [Hardcover]

Yigal Allon (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 273 pages
• Publisher: Universe Books; First edition. edition (1970)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0876631375
• ISBN-13: 978-0876631379
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,503,053 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Israeli army, in theory and practice, February 9, 2005

By 

Jill Malter ([e-mail]) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The making of Israel's army (Hardcover)

This is the story of how the Jews, who had done without a national military force for over a millenium, developed a genuine army in the twentieth century. The Israel Defence Army was officially created on June 27, 1948. But its precursor had already been fighting a war for the previous six months. And its origins were even earlier.

As Allon explains, the first cells were formed as early as the 1880s. During the period between the World Wars, Arab pogroms led to the development of the Haganah. This army was founded in the 1920s, but began to acquire some skill with the arrival of Orde Wingate in the Levant in 1936. Wingate and Yitzhak Sadeh developed the Haganah into a force that turned the military situation around, so that the Arab attacks ground to a halt in 1939. Unfortunately, at that time, the Jews suffered a major diplomatic defeat. The British came up with the infamous White Paper which severly restricted Jewish immigration, and that put the Jews into a virtual war with Great Britain. In addition, the Jews faced threats from Germany and its allies as well as from Arabs. To counter all this, the Jews in 1941 formed an additional strike force, called the Palmach.

Allon describes how the new army trained and how decisions were made to avoid open warfare against Britain and also to avoid terrorist attacks on civilians. Instead, the focus was on illegal (according to the White Paper) immigration of Jews. This activity required planning and coordination: it required ground forces as well as ships. The author explains that this experience helped prepare Israel for its war of liberation, which began on November 30, 1947.

Allon then tells about the War of Liberation and the Sinai campaign of 1956. He explains that peace was averted after the 1956 war primarily due to the efforts of the United States, which forced Israel to withdraw from the Sinai but did nothing to restrain the Arab side.

The author then explains the rationale in favor of Israel going to war against the Arabs in 1967 as a preventive measure. Allon successfully argued against this. As a result, Israel decided not to go to war unless its neighbors concentrated their forces in clear preparation for an attack or closed the Straits of Tiran (a clear declaration of war). Egypt did the latter, starting the Six Day War. Allon argued for an attack in May, before the Egyptians could organize their Sinai forces, but for political reasons, the strike was postponed until June.

The author points out that Israel was slow to attack Syria, with the result that Southern Syria remained in Syrian, not Israeli hands. Had Israel forced Syrian forces back to the outskirts of Damascus, the Israelis might have been able to link up with the Druze people and help them form their own buffer state.

The book concludes with over 150 pages of fascinating documents about the origin and early exploits of the Israeli forces.

If you are interested in this topic, I'm sure you will find this book very rewarding.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful man, February 22, 2006

By 

Quilmiense (USA/Spain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The making of Israel's army (Hardcover)

Yigal Allon writes about the creation of the Israeli Defence Forces since its times as the Haganah, under the British rule in Palestine, until after the Six-Day war.

It's a wonderful read, you can feel the honesty and good heart of this great man, a great, humble and intelligent Israeli Jew.

The book is divided in two parts. The first is the actual telling of the story and the second (second half, approximately 150 pages) is a collection of documents that you may find more or less interesting. But only for the first part it's worth the read.

Now I am interested in reading his "My Father's House".